Classical School and Positive School on  individual an crime

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Classical School and Positive School on  individual an crime, sociological theories explain crime to state the reasons for patterns of behavior which can be understood in the context of the society and his/ her proximal relations with the same. Sociological theories found bearings within the anomie theory propagated by Durkheim which set the basis for theories of differential association, strain, social control, opportunity, conflict and social learning.

Anomie means normlessness. According to Durkheim, when a social system is in a state of anomie, common or accepted values and norms are questioned. However, given that there are no alternate legitimate values and meanings developed, there is a sense of chaos. According to Durkheim, such a society produces, in many of its members, psychological states characterized by a sense of futility, lack of purpose, and emotional emptiness and despair.

The breakdown of social bonds, associations, and social controls in families, neighborhoods, and communities resulted in what Chicago scholars Thomas and Znaniecki (1958) termed “social disorganization. ”Park and Burgess (1936) expanded the study of social disorganization by introducing the study of interrelationships of people and / with their environment. They studied the geographic locations of high crime rates rather than criminals and developed the notion that urban development has a social pattern in the same.

Shaw and McKay (1972) expanded on the work of Park and Burgess by stating that the way a neighborhood is organized in a city impacted crime. Their study confirmed that delinquency was highest in the zone of transition and decreased within neighborhoods where increasing affluence corresponded with the distance from the central business district. Shaw and McKay also concluded in their study that the nature of the neighborhood and the economic status and cultural norms and values of the neighborhood were important in the regulation of crime; ethnicity and the nature of the individual within the neighborhood did not determine the likelihood of crime (Shaw, Forbaugh, McKay, & Cottrell, 1929).

Differential association

Edwin Sutherland (1949) advanced the theory of Shaw and McKay to state that criminal behavior is learned through social interactions wherein opportunities to access resources are favorable to some while not favorable to some. Sutherland’s differential association theory addressed explicitly the broader structural implications in society. It stated that individuals embedded within structural units are differentially exposed to definitions in favor of or opposed to delinquent and criminal behavior. (Sutherland 1947 cited from Haynie 2002). The theory of differential association by Sutherland gave priority to the power of social influences and learning experiences and condensed into series of propositions mentioned below:

Criminal behavior is learned

  1. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication.
  2. Interaction with ‘other persons ‘are usually significant others or intimate personal groups where the principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs.
  3. Learning of criminal behavior includes (a) techniques of committing the crime, which are sometimes very complicated, sometimes very simple, and (b) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.
  4. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable. It emphasizes the role of personal networks in the transmission of attitudes and definitions favorable or unfavorable to delinquency.
  5. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law.
  6. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning.
  7. Although criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values, because noncriminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values.
  8. Differential association varies in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity. The most frequent, longest-running, earliest and closest influences will be most efficacious or determinant of learned behavior.

According to Sutherland ‘s (1947) seventh principle, the theory does not merely state that being associated with criminals leads to crime or that being associated with law-abiding persons leads to conforming behavior. It is the nature, characteristics, and content of learning that results from these associations that affect an individual ‘s likelihood of violating the law. “When persons become criminals, they do so because of contacts with criminal behavior patterns and also because of isolation from anti-criminal pattern (Cressey, D. 1960).

The content of learning primarily involves two important elements of skills and techniques for committing crime. For example, how to pick pockets, where, when and how, The second element learnt is the definitions favourable and unfavourable to crime like motives, verbalisations or rationalisations that make crime justified or unjustified.

Strain Theory

Strain theory is associated mainly with the work of Robert Merton who analyzed the individual patterns and means to achieve society ‘s set goals during anomic conditions by identifying five types of adjustment. Merton (1968) refers to these five types of adjustment to anomic conditions as ‗‗modes of individual adaptation:

  1. Conformity: to conform to goals and means, and avoid becoming deviant; this is the most common response to strain in every society.
  2. Innovation: to strive toward culturally prescribed goals, but by illegitimate (often criminal) means.
  • Ritualism: to conform to society’s norms (means) without any expectation of achieving culturally prescribed goals (values). ―They go through the motions of everyday life and do not feel the need to deviate from social norms. It might never occur to them that they should commit a crime even though they might benefit from it materially‖ (p. 72).
  1. Retreatism: to reject goals and means, withdraws emotionally, socially.
  2. Rebellion: to construct ―a new social order‖ of goals and means to replace conventional values and norms. Political radicals, cult followers and various other members of the ―counterculture‖ practice this type of deviant adaptation.